a few questions on Mobile broadband

TheCuke · 11-12-2014 3:40pm #1

hi, i was interested in mobile broadband i was just wondering what it's capabilities are like. how fast would 4g download speeds be? i assume it would be sufficient for online gaming? my plan was to just get a device and then get a sim with all you can eat data deal. is it as straight forward as this?
thanks

jay93 · 20-12-2014 1:46am

If it's 3 then i'd guess the speeds wouldn't be great maybe around 10Mb/s + on 4G it should be fine for browsing and watching videos online but for online gaming 3 ain't great no mobile broadband is .

You can get the modem from 3 and then ask for a pre pay phone sim card too but don't mention to them that you will be using the all you can eat data in the modem as they don't allow that it will work no problem i been using it for years in a modem but 3's terms and conditions say you shouldn't really.. but you would be fine.

The online gaming maybe the only issue you would have for the most part it should work but won't be too reliable then again i don't have 4G on the 3 network in my area only 3G so i'm not sure how the 4G is for gaming.

MichaelR · 20-12-2014 3:47am

4G speeds are nice in my experience. With decent coverage it's way better than my 4M DSL. I did use it for Second Life successfully.

But this is on Vodafone, where no "all you can eat" exists. What I use is mobile broadband, which is 30 Euro/mo with a 20 Gb cap (and I had to get a 18 month contract but did not have to pay for the device).

On Three, 4G coverage is much more restricted. This is because they only got the higher 2100 MHz frequencies for 4G.

Mc Love · 20-12-2014 7:37am

On Meteor and the speeds are super quick compared with some of the wired offers about and even faster than my fibre broadband. The download limit is where they catch you with the highest being 30Gb is utterly ridiculous

Big Wex fan · 21-12-2014 8:23pm

Mc Love wrote: »

On Meteor and the speeds are super quick compared with some of the wired offers about and even faster than my fibre broadband. The download limit is where they catch you with the highest being 30Gb is utterly ridiculous

Hoping they will eventually up the limit on this when they get some of their money back. 4G is the only hope for us in country areas to get some proper hi speeds. Looks to me that meteor are the only one's at the moment that are serious about getting coverage to outside of towns.

MichaelR · 23-12-2014 5:08pm

Big Wex fan wrote: »

Hoping they will eventually up the limit on this when they get some of their money back. 4G is the only hope for us in country areas to get some proper hi speeds. Looks to me that meteor are the only one's at the moment that are serious about getting coverage to outside of towns.

On the contrary, that would be Vodafone. Both where I am (near Adare, co. Limerick) and on the bus routes I use (roads to Dublin, Cork, Galway) Vodafone coverage is better than Meteor and, moreover, it is improving. When I got the modem in late August I had to stick it to the window to get really good speeds (or use an antenna); now I get good indoor coverage.

Vodafone are not perfect. They have a 20 Gb cap, VERY low for this sort of speed. They also seem to have network speed issues in some places - I did not experience those but the Talk To Vodafone forum has some discussion. However, specifically in the area expanding coverage out of towns they seem to be the best. Unless you live in Connemara; for some reason Vodafone left most of Connemara alone while Meteor is busily covering it (I don't live there, just noticed the anomaly on their maps).

BeerWolf · 28-12-2014 11:38am

jay93 wrote: »

If it's 3 then i'd guess the speeds wouldn't be great maybe around 10Mb/s + on 4G it should be fine for browsing and watching videos online but for online gaming 3 ain't great no mobile broadband is .

Load of Bollox, this.

I'm with THREE and I am getting up to 30-45mbps off their 4G with consistently low pings.

I am an avid gamer and have had absolutely no issues what so ever for gaming, and I'm living out in the countryside.

Stop spreading false info!

jay93 · 29-12-2014 4:32am

Not false info at all.

I have been with 3 for my phone before and the only areas I could get 4G it never went over 10-11 Mb/s and I'm not saying it's like that everywhere just where I have been to .

And no mobile broadband should be used for online gaming as it's not going to work for everyone .

Well for you having 4G try use 3G for broadband like I do with 3 and come back to me and tell me about how great your online gaming works. I'm sure it works fine for you I never said it wouldn't work just doesn't work properly over 3G id love to have 4G on 3 to use here .

My 4G on Vodafone works fine where I live doesn't have unlimited data like 3 does so I'm dealing with 3 for now

warlikedave · 30-12-2014 6:56am

BeerWolf wrote: »

Load of Bollox, this.

I'm with THREE and I am getting up to 30-45mbps off their 4G with consistently low pings.

I am an avid gamer and have had absolutely no issues what so ever for gaming, and I'm living out in the countryside.

Stop spreading false info!

Its not false - compare ping rates from fiber with 4g. while 4g is an improvement: 25 to 55 ms, fiber is at 12 to 20ms max which makes quite a difference in a first person shooter for example. Speed fluctuates on 4g quite a bit more more than fiber as well - use your task manager to monitor a sustained download on 4g vs fiber.

It must be noted that 4g service speeds are variable dependent upon contention and signal - there is no guarantee of quality due to ever increasing contention and due to greater user numbers switching over to 4g, greater numbers of users causes cell shrinkage (weaker signal) - while it is not as bad as 3g in suffering degradation it still suffers from the aforementioned. Like 3g as well, 4g can provide strong signal close in but with high contention is doesnt matter since speeds will be degraded.

This is my speed and latency on the three 4g network with 3 bars of signal

I also have a meteor 4g sim that gives me 3 bars of signal and it can clock up to 22mb speeds but the latency is the same as three.

All the above have been tested on a 4g router in a home location after it has been configured for proper home usage - not a phone

Note - ive observed that xbox and pc gaming in terms of using xbox live and other services like game-ranger have had less nat issues on meteor than on three. Three tend to use far more private IP addresses than public which can cause some connectivity issues in terms of gaming.

It must also be noted that as far as I can find out - Irish Networks are deploying CAT3 4g networks (vodafone might be bringing CAT4 active) which are not proper 4g in real terms - a good few countries are already looking towards CAT4 already (still not proper 4g

) - all are categorized as 3.9g technology by 3GPP

Network Listing with categorizations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks

CAT 4 and CAT 5 Basic Specifications plus more info
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/lte-long-term-evolution/ue-category-categories-classes.php

Proper 4g definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced

slowbb · 01-01-2015 8:41am

Hi
I was in the same predicament as you a few months ago and spoke to all of the operators (mobile broadband) and I reviewed their coverage maps. They all indicated that they had coverage in the surrounding area. That’s where it ends. Until you try each of them you won’t know for sure which will suffice for your particularly requirements, and that can turn out to be quite expensive.
Before you decide on an operator, you should really know which mobile providers are operating at your house/office and their associated signal strengths. Signal strengths differ a lot at each corner of your house depending on the signal source. The operator’s returns policy for hardware is very strict.
A few friends of mine and I recently purchased a device, which allowed us to view the providers in my area and their signal strengths. We were very surprised, and in the end we made the correct decision in signing a contract with a provider which provided the best service in my area.
Let us know if you think I can help with our gadget, we could carry out a survey for you.

Regards

warlikedave · 01-01-2015 5:32pm

slowbb wrote: »

Hi
I was in the same predicament as you a few months ago and spoke to all of the operators (mobile broadband) and I reviewed their coverage maps. They all indicated that they had coverage in the surrounding area. That’s where it ends. Until you try each of them you won’t know for sure which will suffice for your particularly requirements, and that can turn out to be quite expensive.
Before you decide on an operator, you should really know which mobile providers are operating at your house/office and their associated signal strengths. Signal strengths differ a lot at each corner of your house depending on the signal source. The operator’s returns policy for hardware is very strict.
A few friends of mine and I recently purchased a device, which allowed us to view the providers in my area and their signal strengths. We were very surprised, and in the end we made the correct decision in signing a contract with a provider which provided the best service in my area.
Let us know if you think I can help with our gadget, we could carry out a survey for you.

Regards

What device did you purchase as a matter of interest?

slowbb · 01-01-2015 9:05pm

Hi

Unfortunately I'm not the techie guy, I know my mate who is technical purchased the device while he was in America.

Regards

warlikedave · 02-01-2015 8:04pm

slowbb wrote: »

Hi

Unfortunately I'm not the techie guy, I know my mate who is technical purchased the device while he was in America.

Regards

If you get the chance - can you ask him about it if that is ok?

a few questions on Mobile broadband

Comments